Are we building enough new houses to meet demand?
The Telegraph reveals today that an acute shortage of houses is driving the boom in the property market. At the same time developers are forced to build a “tidal wave” of new flats, which they are struggling to sell.
Latest Government figures show that the price of a family house has risen at eight times the rate of a new flat over the last seven years, as developers are encouraged to build more and more apartments at the expense of family homes.
Since 2000, when John Prescott, the Deputy Prime Minister, introduced controversial new planning regulations, the number of detached, semi-detached or terraced homes being built has actually fallen.
While the price of a new flat has climbed just 11 per cent to £188,000, the price of a detached house has nearly doubled to £313,00.
Do you think the UK housing market is suffering from a "tidal wave" of new flats? What is encouraging this trend?
Are we building enough new houses to meet demand? If not, what can the Government do to kick start a growth in new housing? Does our small, overcrowded island in fact need more houses?
Do these figures demolish the conventional wisdom that we are more and more a nation of individuals living on their own, rather than one of nuclear families?